Did Japans modernisation involve a loss of Japanese identity Essay

Did Japans modernisation involve a loss of Japanese identity - Essay Example s strongly affected Japanese people and how it has influenced their attitude toward their culture, as well as their identity in the background of history. These issues are discussed because some doubt on the values of a highly modernized society exists. When the Meiji emperor was reestablished as chief of Japan in 1868, the nation was a militarily unsound country, was mostly agricultural, and had small technological development (Beasley, 1999). It was ruled by hundreds of semi-independent feudal lords. The Western mighty forces, Europe and the United States, had coerced Japan to sign treaties that restricted its influence over its own foreign trade and obligated that crimes concerning foreigners in Japan be arbitrated not in Japanese but in Western courts (Nakakita, 1998). When the Meiji period concluded, with the demise of the emperor in 1912, Japan had a remarkably centralized bureaucratic government, a constitution establishing an elected parliament, a well developed transport and communication system, a highly educated population free of feudal class restrictions, an established and swiftly growing industrial sector based on the latest technology, and a powerful army and navy (Sugiharo and Tanaka, 1998). Japan had retaken whole control of its foreign trade and legal system, and, by fighting and winning two wars (one of them against a major European power, Russia), it had secured full independence and equality in international affairs. In a bit more than a generation, Japan had surpassed its goals, and in the process had changed its whole society (Nakakita, 1998). The achievement of Japan in modernization has stirred big interest in why and how it was able to take on Western political, social, and economic institutions in so short a time. It is recognized that modernization, as far as technology and science are concerned, appeared after the Industrial Revolution. This was brought about by the invention of spinning machinery in England during the late